Quick Start Guide for Rapid

Dyslexia Screening for 4 to 15 years .

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Contents 1. About the Rapid Quick Start Guide ................................................................................ 3

2. About Rapid ..................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Getting started ............................................................................................................................... 4

Accessing Rapid for the first time ........................................................................... 4

Adding students to GL Ready .................................................................................... 5

Assigning Rapid to students ....................................................................................... 6

Use this computer and test immediately .......................................................... 6

Use another computer and test later – individual student ................... 7

Use another computer and test later – multiple students .................... 8

Starting a student session later or on another machine ........................ 9

4. Before you begin testing ....................................................................................................... 10

Ensuring you are set up for testing ...................................................................... 10

Carrying out screening .................................................................................................. 10

5. Administering Rapid ................................................................................................................ 11

Retesting with Rapid ...................................................................................................... 11

Assessing students who have limited English .............................................. 11

Animal names for pupils under 7 years old (spoken): ............................. 12

Animal Names for pupils between 7 and 8 years old (spoken) ........ 12

6. Accessing reports ....................................................................................................................... 13

7. Interpreting results ................................................................................................................... 14

8. Integrating Rapid with CoPS or LASS .......................................................................... 14

9. About the subtests .................................................................................................................... 15

10. Teaching recommendations.............................................................................................. 15

11. Editing a student’s details.................................................................................................... 16

12. Deleting a student’s record ................................................................................................. 17

13. Further support ........................................................................................................................... 17

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1. About the Rapid Quick Start Guide The Rapid Quick Start Guide is an aid to navigate the testing system and is designed to be read in conjunction with the Rapid User Manual.

The Rapid User Manual contains far more detail and includes additional topics that are not covered in this guide. The Rapid User Manual was written by a chartered psychologist, Dr Joanna Horne, to provide valuable support for the teacher and SENDCo in interpreting the results and in providing teaching support for those students who need it.

2. About Rapid Rapid Dyslexia Screening is an objective computer-based system for identification of dyslexia between the ages of 4 to 15 years.

It is swift and easy to administer, taking only 15 minutes – less than any comparable system currently available. Results, based on national standardised norms, are available immediately. A simple printable report of the results, which incorporates automatic expert interpretation, gives a clear indication of the probability of dyslexia.

Rapid provides three separate dyslexia-sensitive subtests:

• phonological processing • auditory working memory • phonic decoding skills (for students aged 8 and over) or integration of visual

memory skills (for students aged under 8 years).

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3. Getting started

Accessing Rapid for the first time

Rapid runs on the GL Ready platform at www.glready.com.

Step 1: You will be set up with a GL Ready account and a Rapid subscription.

Step 2: You will receive a welcome email from glready@gl-assessment.co.uk with information on how to access the platform.

Step 3: Before logging in for the first time, set your new password via the ‘Set or reset your password’ link at www.glready.com/password/reset.

You will then receive a second ‘password reset’ email. Follow the instructions in the email to create a secure login for GL Ready.

Step 4: Log in to your GL Ready account and start setting up your students and assigning Rapid (see the next two sub-sections for details).

Step 5: Check the status of your Rapid subscription in the ‘Manage school’ tab at the top of your GL Ready page.

To ensure the security of your students’ personal data, please follow current best practice for password security.

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Adding students to GL Ready

To administer Rapid, you must first add your students to the GL Ready platform.

Step 1: Go to the ‘Manage students’ page (www.glready.com/students).

Step 2: Add individual students by clicking the ‘New student’ button and completing the form.

Or add batches of students via CSV import by clicking the ‘Import students’ button and following the instructions.

The student ID can be the Testwise ID, UPN or any student ID that is meaningful to the school – and enables you to identify students.

NB It is very important that the date of birth of each student is entered correctly as the subtests that are given to each student and the norms that are applied in their report is determined by their age.

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Assigning Rapid to students

There are two options when assigning Rapid to a student(s):

• Option 1: Use this computer: the ‘Assign and start’ button will assign and begin the test on the current device, immediately. This option is useful for testing individual students.

• Option 2: Use another computer: the ‘Assign’ button will allocate Rapid to the student but will not begin the screening session. This is most useful when assigning Rapid to multiple students, or for when the student will sit the screener on another device.

Use this computer and test immediately To assign Rapid to an individual student and test immediately on this device:

Step 1: Click on the ‘Rapid’ button next to their name.

Step 2: Select the ‘Assign and Start’ button:

You will see a list of the subtests available to that student. The three subtests appropriate for the age of the student will have been assigned.

Step 3: To start a subtest, click on the ‘start’ button next to a subtest name.

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Use another computer and test later – individual student To assign Rapid to an individual student and start testing at another time or on a different machine.

Step 1: Click on the ‘Rapid’ button next to the student’s name.

Step 2: Select the ‘Assign’ button

Step 3: Return to the ‘Manage students’ page on your teacher account and start testing at another time or on a different machine.

When a student has successfully been assigned Rapid, an empty circle will appear in the Rapid button against their name.

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Use another computer and test later – multiple students To assign Rapid to multiple students and start testing at another time or on a different machine.

Step 1: Select multiple students by ticking the boxes next to their names.

Step 2: In the group actions above the list of students click on the ‘Rapid’ button.

Step 3: Confirm your selection with the Assign’ button.

Step 4: Return to the ‘Manage students’ page on your teacher account and start testing at another time or on a different machine.

When a student has successfully been assigned Rapid, an empty circle will appear in the Rapid button against their name.

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Starting a student session later or on another machine

You will need the following information before you begin:

• School password (found on the ‘Manage school’ page at http://www.glready.com/school)

• The student’s name

• The student’s date of birth

Step 1: Go to www.glready.com/student

Step 2: Enter your school password. This will take you to a student login page that will list the names of each student that has subtests available to complete.

Step 3: To start a student session, select the name of a student, enter their date of birth and press ‘start’.

You will see a list of the subtests available to that student. The three subtests appropriate for the age of the student will have been assigned.

Step 4: To start a subtest, click on the ‘start’ button next to a subtest name.

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4. Before you begin testing

Ensuring you are set up for testing

Before carrying out any screening with your students, you should ensure that your machines are appropriately set up to run the subtests.

• Run the ‘Diagnostic tool’ (available from www.glready.com/student) on all of the machines that will be used for testing. We recommend you do this while logged in to each machine as a student.

• Ensure that the speakers are working, or that students have access to working headphones.

For further information about the technical requirements for running Rapid on your machines, please see page 12 of the Rapid User Manual.

Carrying out screening

Please read the following information before carrying out screening:

• The three subtests can be done in any order.

• The three subtests do not have to be attempted in a single sitting.

• Full results can be obtained once the student completes all three subtests.

• Screening should be carried out in reasonably quiet surroundings with minimal distractions.

• Each subtest is preceded by a demonstration and/or practice items.

• Upon completion of the practice phase, the test will start.

• Younger students should be supervised during the screening.

• Older students, once they have started, may not need supervision.

• Most of the subtests in Rapid are adaptive; the program will automatically adjust the difficulty of the items to suit the ability of the student.

• In general, the items get harder the longer the subtest continues.

• Completed subtests will be clearly marked with a tick.

More detailed information can be found on page 11 of the Rapid User Manual.

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5. Administering Rapid

Retesting with Rapid

Generally, we do not recommend retesting.

All psychological and educational tests are subject to practice effects, which are the positive or negative psychological impacts of previous assessment(s) on a student’s performance.

• Positive impacts include item familiarity and increased confidence, which tend to inflate scores on subsequent assessment occasions.

• Negative impacts include decreased motivation or overconfidence, which tend to deflate scores on subsequent assessment occasions.

It can be seen, therefore, that retesting with any psychological and educational test is highly likely to produce results that have been influenced in some way and consequently they are less likely to be valid or reliable.

However, exceptional situations may arise when the teacher feels the need to re-administer one or more of the subtests in Rapid. Please see the Rapid User Manual for further guidance.

N.B. Re-testing will overwrite the student’s previous results.

Assessing students who have limited English

Assessment of any student who has limited proficiency in spoken English is often problematic. However, Rapid is less problematic than many conventional methods of assessment.

• Rapid has a strongly visual format and minimal reliance on spoken instructions.

• It does not include any direct measures of reading and spelling – skills which would be expected to be significantly affected by limited proficiency in spoken English.

• The subtests in Rapid are attempting to identify students who display deficits in various aspects of phonological processing, because the principal weight of research evidence on dyslexia supports this approach. There is good evidence to support the use of such tests with students speaking English as an additional language.

• Teachers should still exercise caution when interpreting the test results of such students.

It should also be noted that in order to tackle the subtest of auditory sequential memory, the student will need to know the spoken form of English animal names (for 4-7-year olds) or the digits 1–9 in spoken and written form (for 8-15-year olds). Where there is uncertainty, a teacher or assistant who speaks the student’s first language can help with explaining instructions. Please see the Rapid User Manual for further guidance.

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Animal names for pupils under 7 years old (spoken):

• Elephant

• Hippopotamus

• Fox

• Bear

• Cat

• Goat

• Sheep

• Donkey

• Rabbit

• Squirrel

• Mouse

• Panda

• Tiger

• Monkey

• Spider

• Ant

• Crab

• Frog

• Duck

• Hen

• Penguin

• Robin

• Horse

• Camel

• Reindeer

• Lion

Animal Names for pupils between 7 and 8 years old (spoken)

• Elephant

• Hippopotamus

• Cat

• Fox

• Goat

• Rabbit

• Squirrel

• Mouse

• Frog

• Ant

• Crab

• Spider

• Duck

• Hen

• Penguin

• Robin

• Horse

• Camel

• Reindeer

• Lion

• Rhinoceros

• Panda

• Donkey

• Monkey

• Grasshopper

• Beetle

• Scorpion

• Snake

• Lizard

• Seagull

• Pigeon

• Eagle

• Parrot

• Blackbird

• Kangaroo

• Buffalo

• Giraffe

• Zebra

• Tiger

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6. Accessing reports Reports are only of value if a student has completed all three of the assessment tasks presented to him or her. To access a student’s report:

Step 1: Go to the ‘Manage student’ page on GL Ready.

Step 2: Click on the ‘Report’ button against that student’s name.

Step 3: To pull up the reports of multiple students, select those students by ticking the boxes next to their names and in the group actions above the list of students, click on the ‘Report’ button.

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Step 4: Navigate between reports using the dropdown list of names.

N.B. If your school is subscribed to multiple products on GL Ready and a student has more than one report available, use the dropdown arrow to select the correct report you wish to see.

Step 5: To add comments to a report, click on ‘Add assessor’s comments’, type your comments in the box and click ‘Save’.

Step 6: Print out a report by using your internet browser’s printing options.

7. Interpreting results For details on how to interpret the results please see Rapid User Manual page 17.

8. Integrating Rapid with CoPS or LASS Although Rapid can identify a student with dyslexia it is not a comprehensive diagnostic, nor does it necessarily give information about students’ strengths in learning. So inevitably it will have limitations in terms of pointers for educational strategies to address students’ problems in learning.

The best way to overcome these limitations is by the combined use of Rapid with a follow-up diagnostic assessment given to those students who are at risk (i.e. those with Rapid screening results in the ‘very high’, ‘high’ or ‘moderate’ probability of dyslexia categories.). Follow-up assessments available are:

• CoPS (for age 4:0 – 7:11) • LASS 8-11 (for age 8:0 – 11:11) • LASS 11-15 (for age 11:0 – 15:11)

CoPS and LASS are both designed to give a full learning profile for each student. Reports from Rapid, CoPS and LASS can be used to support a specialist referral.

Results from Rapid will automatically be incorporated into CoPS or LASS 8-11.

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9. About the subtests The Rapid subtests assess phonological and memory skills that are known to impact on literacy.

Table 1. Areas assessed by Rapid Dyslexia Screening

Subtest Age range Cognitive area assessed

Rhymes / Word chopping / Segments

4:0 – 15:11 Phonological processing

Races / Mobile phone 4:0 – 15:11 Auditory sequential memory

Crayons / Funny words / Non-words 4:0 – 7:11 Visual-verbal integration memory

8:0 – 15:11 Phonic skills

In order to allow for natural development in the component skills as children get older and ensure that the test gives accurate results, the content of each of these subtests varies according to the age of the child, although the underlying cognitive processes are essentially the same.

For more details, please see the Rapid User Manual page 19.

10. Teaching recommendations There are many helpful teaching recommendations in the Rapid User Manual. Please see page 21 for details.

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11. Editing a student’s details To edit a student’s details:

Step 1: Select the edit icon next to the student’s name.

Step 2: In the ‘Edit student’ form you can change any of their details.

N.B. It is important to take care to enter the date of birth in correctly. If a student has already sat a test AND you change their date of birth, then their responses and reports will be automatically deleted. This is because the tests are age sensitive and it is important to avoid misdiagnosis. There is no way to retrieve deleted responses. There is no impact to changing any of the other details.

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12. Deleting a student’s record It is important to note that deleting a student’s records completely erases all data – there is no way to retrieve deleted data. Ensure you have saved any required reports before deleting.

Step 1: Select the edit icon next to the student’s name.

Step 2: In the ‘Edit student’ form click the ‘Delete student’ button.

Step 3 A confirmation message will “pop up”. If you want to delete their record, select ‘Delete’.

13. Further support For further information about accessing and using Rapid on the GL Ready platform, please visit www.glreadysupport.com/.